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Chinese company sitting on US$16B worth of gold at Guyana’s Aurora Gold Mine
Kaieteur News- At the current market price, Zijin Mining Group Co. Ltd.’s gold reserves at Guyana’s Aurora Gold Mine (AGM) in Region Seven is now worth some US$16 billion.
Zijin Mining Group Co. Ltd. is a Chinese-state owned mining giant operating in Guyana through its subsidiary (AGM). The company purchased the large-scale mining concession spanning more than 3000 acres of gold rich lands in 2020 from another foreign company (Canadian) for US$283 million and is now boasting of how profitable the venture is for its shareholders.
In fact, the company said it was able to make profits from the lucrative goldfield in same year it was purchased.
The amount of gold at Aurora, recorded at the bottom of the table, according to Zijin financial results for 2023
“Originally, a loss-loss making operation in care and maintenance, it resumed production and generated profits in the same year after being acquired by Zijin,” the company stated on its website.
A recent look at the company’s financials for 2023 revealed that it has all the reasons to boast since it is sitting on almost 184 tonnes of gold (183,809 KG) the equivalent of approximately six million ounces of gold.
The company disclosed that it has already extracted over three tonnes of gold from the project and plans to ramp up production in the coming years through expansion and the completion of an underground mine.
“Once fully operational, it (the underground mine) is expected to achieve an annual gold production capacity of over four tonnes,” the company said.
Kaieteur News, in May 2024, reported that the company raked in some US$185 million from its operation in 2023.
One of the mined-out pits at AGM
In December 2023, Minister of Natural of Resources, Vickram Bharrat told reporters that the c company declared some 88,000 ounces of gold (2.5 tonnes) for 2022.
Bharrat claimed then that the company is up to date in paying its royalties. Gold price for 2022 and 2023 averaged between US$1800 to $2000 per troy ounce. In 2024, gold prices surged to over US$2000 per ounce and, in some cases, higher.
Zijin Mining benefits from duty-free concessions on all equipment, supplies and materials for the Aurora Gold project, according to AGM mining contract with Guyana.
In return Guyana earns royalty based on the price that the Chinese company gets for the sale of its gold from buyers it selects and not at the prevailing world market price.
This is in addition to there being a sliding scale for the payments to be made—five per cent royalty when gold is sold for US$1,000 and below or eight per cent, when sold at one cent above that price.
(Chinese company sitting on US$16B worth of gold at Guyana’s Aurora Gold Mine)
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